What a Birthday Present…

The Flyers winning on May 4th for my birthday, how satisfying. Before you quit of comment however on my bad time keeping skills. I write this from the UK and the game started at midnight, therefore, May 4th, not May 3rd.

The Flyers are going to the Eastern Confrence Finals. That’s a satisfying phrase isn’t it? I just can’t stop smiling because for once, I’m just glad to be wrong: I predicted Flyers in 6, they did it in 5, defying the odds for a second time.

You couldn’t ask for more in a hockey game, the NHL should be using stuff like that for their marketing – the teamwork and effort that players put into these sorts of game, not Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin. That was one of the most dramatic games I’ve seen in Hockey. 1-1, then 2-1 Habs, then 3-2 Flyers, then 3-3 Habs, finishing 6-4 to the Flyers. I’d like to point out right from the start – The Flyers didn’t drop a 2-0 lead!!!! The Canadiens did!!!! The planets have aligned!

Anyway, I’ve got alot of respect for Carey Price despite what i’ve said up till now, he had a fantastic start to the game despite it trailing off towards the end. A “Nice Job” to the Habs fans at the game too – I am very impressed. I doesn’t forgive you for what happened at the end of the 1st series, but cheering Price while he was down and cheering your team after the game was finished, that’s something special.

The Flyers had a slow start to the game, letting the Canadiens dominate for most of the first which ended in a 2-1 lead for the Habs. The beggining of the Second was much the same, with the Habs quickly taking a 3-1 lead. At this point, I was ready to turn my TV off and call it a night. But Lo! Mike Richards slips one in using his glove and the magnificent R.J. Umberger putting one in with a wrister. The Flyers found a new energy and blitzed on, with Scott Hartnell scoring. In the third period, I think I found religion…about 2 seconds after Kostitsyn scored for the Habs. I was in a state of distress throughout this period (as I’m sure was the mood in many bars around Philly). Scottie Upshall, man of the hour, put one in the back to almost seal the deal before Mike Knuble scored an empty netter – Forget Soap Opera’s, Game 5 was PURE drama.

Biron again continued to lay down a level of shock-and-awe with magnificent goaltending. Some may say: “4 goals aint magnificent goaltending”, but the Habs were doing what they should have done since Game 1 – Getting traffic infront. I’d praise the rest of the team aswell, but I don’t think you wan’t 20 paragraphs of love (plus coaching staff), so I’ll just focus on what lies ahead.

It’s a safe bet to say that the Flyers will play the Penguins in the Eastern Confrence Final (I can’t get enough of saying that…) and we know that the Flyers can not only beat them, but demolish them, both home and away. I imagine Steven’s will use a similar contaiment tactic on Crosby and Malkin as was used on Ovechkin earlier in the playoffs. However, I think the evil penguins (Oh boy will I be biased in the next series) will have gotten over confident, picking up 7 straight wins, hence why the Rangers suddenly knocked them down for no aparant reason. I still think the Penguins will win, but will be badly bruised from the first two series and will not look forward to a series with the hardcore physical Broad St. Bullies. As we all know, the Penguins dropped the last game of the regular season just to avoid Philly inorder to play Ottawa. They have no choice now, they must play us and suffer the consequences of not playing us earlier.

Should, by some magical comeback of amazing proportions, the Rangers win, the Flyers would have a harder time, especialy with Jagr and the Rangers goalie Lunquvist (I think that’s how it’s spelt). But it’s so unlikley that I’m not gonna dwell on it further. It would be good however for either the Sharks or the Rangers to hold on a little longer to give the Flyers a rest, maybe take their series to 6 or 7? If they do, I’ll send them a dollar.

Also, if there is bias amongst the Referees and Gary Bettman, it will be revealed in this series, the one Mr. Bettman wanted to avoid at all costs.

I think there was something else, but I can’t remember, so the prediction…

My Predition is: Flyers in 5, with Crosby dead in 2.

It’s 3-1 Flyers, and this post is late!

I apologise for not getting this up sooner. It was a combination of laziness and the inability to reach a computer because I was in London (UK) for most of today. I could go on and on and on about game 4 but I’m sure you’ve had enough of that. If I had waited till Saturday to write this, you would haven’t of gotten much because of my “Don’t speculate on the game, the day of the game” policy. It’s a superstitions thing.

However, It’s still Friday in the UK for 3 hours and 8 hours in the US, so I shall begin speculating…

Saturday’s game will only finish when the 3rd Period ends. The Canadiens will bring their A game and so will the Flyers. They will take it down to the wire and I’m not sure if i can predict who will come out on top. At least not without a certain level of deep meditation and words from God if I’m going to make an educated prediction. The Megadeth bouncer in me says the Flyers will win, but the cynical part of me believes that the Habs will be able to do one better over the Flyers.

So lets break it down into sections. We’ll start with Goalkeeping. Biron has been hot. I swear the picture I have of him in my study started smoking recently. If he can keep it up, the Flyers are in a great position. Carboneau himself admitted the Habs have tried everything to put the puck behind Biron and have failed at every turn. I am forced to wonder if I’m putting too much trust in him. I remember putting alot of trust in Robert Esche, and we all know what happened then. The Canadiens goalkeeping has been fairly poor this series. Price is totally shell shocked from the first three games, and his confidence won’t be great after Carboneau dropped him. Halak put up a better job than Price in game 4, but the Flyers still found ways of scoring.

Offensively, The Habs are consistent in outshooting the Flyers, which why I’m nervous about Biron. If the Canadiens can score early in a game, keep up a good pace and continue to out shoot the Flyers, things may make a turn for the worse. However, the Flyers are very good at matching the pace of the Habs and are so physical in their style of play, they are keeping the Habs relatively at bay. The chemistry in each of the Flyers lines is also helping to score, despite the shooting defecit.

Defensivley, the Flyers are doing better than what they were doing in the rest of the season. Yes, there is a shot defecit but for the most part, the Flyers are closing them down. The Habs seem to be quite happy to let the Flyers repeatedly dump the puck in and play it from there. This is a plan that has been working well for the Flyers but Carboneau seems determined to ignore it.

Penalty wise, the Flyers are in bad shape. They are getting far too many penalties which is resulting in opportunities and goals for the Habs. Need I mention Game 3 or 1? I’m not saying the Flyers penalty kill isnt any good, on the contrary, it has done excedingly well considering the circumstances. The Habs are getting fewer penalties in contrast and aren’t suffering as hard. However, their penalty kill has been poor recently, allowing the Flyers to score at critical moments.

I won’t comment on the fans. There very similar in their fervour and zeal that I would be wasting my time (Also, my response would be higly bias)

I imagine some Habs fans are looking at the First Round for hope. I will now shoot it down in the style in which I am famous for.

Some believe that The Habs were forced to a Game 7 after being 3-1 up against the Bruins. It is a belief, one taken by Carboneau, that the Canadiens can emulate this. I don’t think so – The reason for the Bruins sudden leap forward was because of poor goaltending on the Canadiens part (Price in particular). There is also a belief that the Habs could emulate the Caps in coming back against the Flyers. To begin with, The Canadiens don’t have Ovechkin and Federov. Also Huet was a much better Goalie than Halak OR Price. So there.

If the Flyers fail to close it out on Saturday, the deed will be done on Sunday, I am sure of that.